ORLEANS – When banker Valerie LaBelle reported to work at the Rockland Trust branch here on the Tuesday after the long Memorial Day weekend, she saw something that made her very happy: A small color rendering of an inlet running through marsh grass was tucked up behind the Plexiglas of a poster in the bank’s ATM lobby. When she retrieved the original art and turned it over, she saw the words in black ink: “Fro...

NORTH EASTHAM  — The results of the Nauset Regional High School Youth Health Survey were about more than numbers for the region's substance abuse task force when it met June 3. For example, 94.56 percent of students responding said they never had a day when they stayed away from school because they felt they'd be unsafe there or on their way—but eight of the 147 who answered said they did. “There shouldn't be...

BARNSTABLE — With TV camera crews from Boston circling like great white sharks, the board of county commissioners heard a proposal last week to use sound to move seals and sharks away from the Cape's off-shore swimming areas. With the exception of coastal homes falling into the sea from eroding banks, off-Cape media attention is limited to the summer months and mostly concentrates on traffic jams and the wea...

Humane Society, IFAW Beg To Differ Barnstable County officials listened Wednesday morning as general contractor Willy Planinshek of Yarmouthport and Kevin McCarthy of Falmouth, who's worked for decades in oceanographic manufacturing, talked about technology that could divert seals, and thus, they say, sharks, from waters enjoyed by Cape swimmers.   Their acoustic device, now in very early planning stages...

ORLEANS — With the help of Woods Hole Group, the town has completed a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) report for the state and updated its federal Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan (MHMP). Final drafts of both documents are available on the planning department's webpage (town.orleans.ma.us/planning-department), with comments being accepted through May 31 by Director of Planning and Community Development Geo...

Orleans Police Color Guard stands at attention during Monday's Memorial Day ceremony. ORLEANS — Hundreds of townspeople turned out at Town Cove and Academy Place on Memorial Day to remember their war dead and the 391 local men and women who served in the nation's conflicts. With the help of Nauset Regional ...

ORLEANS — Voters said yes Tuesday to spending $47 million on wastewater infrastructure and no to spending $100,000 on a renovation or replacement feasibility study of the fire station. Challenger Cecil Newcomb topped the ballot for selectman with 966 votes, and incumbent Mark Mathison remained on the board with 946. Erik Oliver, who received 638 votes, was encouraged by Newcomb to run again as the results we...

ORLEANS — The selectmen voted unanimously last week to move ahead with the first year of a revised scope of field investigations and permitting for a less ambitious dredging of Nauset Estuary, for now at least without the financial support of neighboring Eastham. “We've revised dredge volumes,” Woods Hole Group consultant Leslie Fields told the board May 15. “Before, the channel that started at the inlet and...

ORLEANS — Given what the Orleans Historical Society has been up to recently, it's no surprise that the current exhibit at the 1834 Meetinghouse is titled “Models of Maritime Courage and Adventure.” The OHS board has been a model of courage and adventure itself, setting out to raise $3 million to update the Meetinghouse and Hurd Chapel and purchase the Captain Linnell House while creating a new umbrella ident...

ORLEANS — Voters said yes Tuesday to spending $47 million on wastewater infrastructure and no to spending $100,000 on a renovation or replacement feasibility study of the fire station. Challenger Cecil Newcomb topped the ballot for selectman with 966 votes, and incumbent Mark Mathison remained on the board with 946. Erik Oliver, who received 638 votes, was encouraged by Newcomb to run again as the results we...

ORLEANS — Town Meeting agreed Monday to spend $47 million on wastewater infrastructure over the next three decades pending a favorable debt exclusion vote at the town election May 21, but rejected spending $1.5 million to acquire a conservation restriction on 18 acres of Sipson Island. “We have the Main Street sewers in the ground,” Paul Davis said from the floor, “on time and under budget. This article toni...

ORLEANS — The three candidates for two seats on the board of selectmen are grateful for the opportunity they've had to live here and worried about the lack of same for the next generations. “Of all the kids I taught in this town over the last 45 years, most have moved away,” Selectman Mark Mathison said. “They can't afford to live here.” His daughter, a teacher at Nauset Regional High School, lives at home w...